Arlin Grove (Waylon Jennings) has just finished a hitch in the Army and finds he's stranded in the small town of Morgan's Corner after being robbed by drunken rednecks.

Arlin and Molly soon marry, and after playing a few songs at a local honky-tonk, Grove becomes a professional musician when he's offered 75 dollars a week for a standing Saturday night gig.

Lang's paramour Margo (CeCe Whitney) helps give Arlin's act some polish, and before long the singer is knocking 'em dead on the country circuit, and even playing the Grand Ole Opry.

Several years later, the film's title became prophetic: Waylon (along with several other country artists) began to openly rebel against Nashville's producer-oriented approach to making records.

The film was pulled from television distribution in the mid-1970s, and despite the major surge in Waylon's popularity at that time, Nashville Rebel was neither seen on TV nor was officially released on home video until the mid-1990s re-release.